The Townsville Coast

Sept 22-Oct 3

After buying a new battery and a bit of other shopping we headed for the Northern beach areas where there are several free camps operated by Townsville Council; each of these has a 48 hour limit and in peak season are very hard to find a space; we started at Saunders Beach, only 20km North of Townsville outskirts.

Space here is very limited with room for only six vans along the rear fenceline; overnight vehicles are allowed up to the centre line of the area so at the end of the day the smaller campervans all lined up across the front of the caravans to stay within the allowed area!

The beach here is great and you can see back to Castle Rock above Townsville and Magnetic Island, as at the top with Frances walking Tess along the beach’ here is a wider view:

From Saunders Beach we decided to take a slow run up this part of the coast if we can get a space; needing to catch up on Laundry and shopping we backtracked 20+km to Deeragun (Townsville’s Northern Suburb) and picked up groceries and fuel then back up to the Bluewater Caravan Park (Right) for 2 nights to do laundry etc. The whole of this 55 acre park is dead grass with severe water restrictions in place, would look great if green!

TOOMULLA BEACH
Next stop was Toomulla, a camp area not next to the beach but close to the creek and boat ramp; lots of room here though and drinking water taps available if needed.

BALGAL BEACH:

North again from here next stop was Balgal Beach; a little bigger than Saunders with room for about 12 vans and famous for it’s Fish and Chips from the adjacent cafe (below); we can confirm that the Mackerel we had was great and the chips the best anywhere!

While here we were treated to a small display from the local Hot Rod Club who appeared for Lunch at the Fishermans Landing and parked up for a while.